VANCOUVER -- St. George’s senior school student Trevor Leung was working on his computer Tuesday afternoon when he saw the Yahoo news alert: a package of human remains had been discovered in the mail room at the nearby St. George’s junior school.

Leung didn’t know then that it was a human foot. Or that earlier, at about

1 p.m., a package containing a hand had been opened by a staff member at another Vancouver school, False Creek elementary.

By then, investigators in Montreal and Vancouver were on the phone, trying to establish whether the body parts were linked to the murder case involving former Canadian porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta.

Magnotta, who was arrested in Germany on Monday, is accused of killing and dismembering Chinese student Jun Lin overnight May 24-25 and mailing his body parts to the headquarters of the federal Liberal and Conservative parties. Those packages were mailed out of Montreal and found May 29.

A package from St. Catharines, Ont. was received at False Creek elementary Tuesday, but The Vancouver Sun does not know whether this is the package under investigation.

Montreal police say a hand, foot and head are missing from Lin’s body. Vancouver police Deputy Chief Warren Lemcke said police hadn’t yet identified who the body parts belong to but are in touch with Montreal.

“You know how it works,” said Montreal police Const. Anie Lemieux. “It will take some time for tests to analyze what was found in Vancouver and to see if there is any connection with the case in Montreal.”

One of the packages was immediately sent to Vancouver General Hospital, where it was being examined by a forensic pathologist to identify the remains and who they belong to.

Meanwhile, at False Creek elementary, staff were trying to keep the situation as normal as possible for the students after a secretary opened up the white box containing what at first seemed like a joke, said principal Brian Murton.

Though it looked like regular mail from the outside, “it was a suspicious package that smelled,” he said. He was unable to recall the specific postmark on the box, but said it was not from B.C.

Murton said he had “absolutely no idea” why the school was targeted. “There’s no bad things, no threats, no former students” connecting the False Creek school to Magnotta.

“No nothing, it’s a total mystery,” he said.

By 2:30 p.m., staff at False Creek had realized “the gravity of the situation,” Vancouver school board spokesman Kurt Heinrich said. The police were contacted, classes continued and the staff member who made the grisly discovery is “doing fine.” School resumes as normal today. The students weren’t told what was happening even though there were police cars outside.

Larissa Warrington, the chairwoman of the False Creek elementary Parents’ Advisory Committee, said when she arrived to collect her children, the atmosphere at the school was “business as usual.”

“Obviously there was excitement for the students because [the police cars] were visible to the students and also there were media vans,” she said. “There was curiosity for sure but just curiosity.”

Warrington said school staff appeared composed. But some parents were disturbed to hear what happened.

“This is a very safe environment, an old-fashioned school,” said parent Narges Zarafatkar. “So I don’t know who would send something like that. It’s so amazing, who has that sick mind to do this thing?”

Krista Bernard, who arrived at False Creek elementary with her daughter for an after-school gymnastics class, asked whether it was linked to “some of the other cases we’ve seen in the news this week.

“I want to go find out more and see if I want to leave my daughter here, obviously,” she said. “It’s scary.”

Heinrich said senior staff, as well as counsellors, will be on site today to offer support to the older elementary school students, who might watch the news or hear about it from their parents.

At St. George’s, the mail room is in an isolated area, away from students and staff, said school spokesman Gordon C. Allan, so it was easy to call the police discreetly without raising any alarms.

“There was no other involvement of students or faculty and that’s obviously our primary concern,” he said.

“We have been advised by the VPD that as far as they’re concerned this is totally random. ... We’re doing our own digging to make sure that is the case.

“The fact that the [packages] were sent to False Creek elementary and St. George’s, I mean these are totally disconnected schools. So there’s no rhyme or reason to it.”

Leung said he wondered what the person who opened the package thought when they saw the contents. “They only emailed the teachers, they never told us,” Leung said. “Everybody is talking about it now.”

But parent Alex Tsakumis said he was shocked. “I have a son here that I love very much, and this has been very disturbing,” he said.

Tsakumis, who also went to St. George’s and is a former president of the alumni association, would not speculate about why the body part had been sent to this particular school.

Langley-based criminal profiler Jim Van Allen said the body parts mailed to Vancouver schools are more likely to be connected to the Magnotta case than the work of a copycat.

Magnotta’s connection to Vancouver isn’t clear, but according to the Internet Adult Film Database, between 2003 and 2009 he was in eight videos or photo shoots with different companies located in California, Florida, Ohio, Toronto and Vancouver.

“It’s just so unique. It was a hand and foot sent to two different places in Ottawa, hand and foot sent here. It could be a match,” said Van Allen. “If you had three feet then I’d say that you have … more potential for a copycat.”

“Why would he pick schools? Jesus, I don’t know, but I think … Magnotta [allegedly] picked the two political parties for the media attention it would garner.” He could have picked the schools “because it’s so shocking and offensive to the community,” Allen said.

The fact that the body parts in both cases were mailed through Canada Post and that the body parts arrived in Vancouver a week after they turned up in Ottawa fits with Canada Post’s timeline, Van Allen said.

Investigators will have to examine the packages for similarities in how they were addressed, what the packing materials were and how the body parts were severed, he said.

Irwin Cohen, director of the school of criminology at the University of the Fraser Valley, said copycat crimes are comparatively rare. “It’s not very common,” he said, “but the more sensational the crime and the more it’s reported, that can serve to either increase a person’s notoriety or conceal their own identity. If it seemed to ‘work’ for Person A, maybe it will work for Person B. Obviously this crime is extremely gruesome.”

If the mailing of body parts to the Vancouver schools is linked to the Montreal killing, the connection and choice of schools may not become clear until much later, Cohen said, and perhaps not at all.

“It could be a connection that only exists in the offender’s mind and you don’t find out until you catch him. It really does depend on the motivation for the offence and the person’s mental health. Sometimes you see very orderly crime scenes that are more organized and well planned. People were scratching their heads with the Montreal case, but the behaviour doesn’t really make sense until you catch the person. It may never make sense.”

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.